Small watertight AC connector?

[thesigma]

Hi, I recently accquired some LED fixtures by OptiLED. these seem to be designed for architectural use. I have ten strips of RGB leds 20 perstrip, 12"long, and for "spots" with 1 each R,G,B 1 watt leds. These are pretty cool and I got a good price on them, but the main gripe I have now is the odd connectors they use. the power comes in on a sure-seal connector which is IP65 rated, as are the fixtures. the connector is however, not the easiest to mate and get the pins aligned. I would not care if using themas intended, but I am using them at our portable church and as such must set them up and tear them down each week, I fear either : breaking pins, wearing them out, or just plain getting really annoyed at how not easy they are to mate. I modified one to tak a standard NEMA 5-15 plug, but would like to find a more easily mated connector to replace the sure seals. I thought Powerconn, but the have no cable mount receptacles (each strip has power in and out on a 6-8" flying lead for daisy chaining) would be cool to maintain the IP65 rating also, in case I do use them outdoors at some time. I do not want to use nema5-15's as they are a bit large compared to the fixture.

Any recomendations? If I don't come up with something suitable, I will just mount the strips to a couple boards and rewire the first with a nema 5-15, and leave them hooked up all the time. I'd like to retain the flexibility of putting a strip anywhere i need it though. looked into ordering the sureseals to make adaptors, not too bad for the price, except the crimper is a bit steep, cheapest I found was over $200 on ebay. and like I said, they are a bit of a pain to mate.

Thanks

 

[techieman33]

You can use powercon with a barrel between each fixture

Neutrik - Lighting - powerCON 20 Amp - NAC3MM-1

 

[avkid]

You can use powercon with a barrel between each fixture

Neutrik - Lighting - powerCON 20 Amp - NAC3MM-1

I don't recommend it.
They're about $15 each and there is no work around if one gets lost.

 

[thesigma]

Don't want to have to use a barrel anyway, for that exact reason, and bulk. adding a barrel gets to about the bulk of two nema 5-15's.

 

[Traitor800]

Check these out, same as a powercon but you can mate the inlines without a barrel. Also if you order over molded cables from them they have an ip65 rating when mated.
Neutrik USA Inc Neutrik NAC3FX powerCON TRUE1 Cable Connector Power Connectors & Adapters at Markertek.com

 

[TimMiller]

Personally I would just make a little pig tail adapter that goes from Edison their socket then you can remove them and use their socket when you want to maintain the ip65 rating. They have ip65 rated twist locks. For ideas look for marine power connectors.

 

[thesigma]

That looks good. These must be new, never seen them before, and can't find them on the Neutrik site (which I did check before posting).

Thanks,

 

[mrb]

That looks good. These must be new, never seen them before, and can't find them on the Neutrik site (which I did check before posting).

Thanks,

Here is the problem with the new neutrik connectors: They are not UL Listed. They are a UL recognized component to be used in the factory assembly of UL Listed products. Thus they cant be sold and used (to code) the same as say a 5-15 plug / connector.

This is probably why theyre not on the Neutrik site as theyre pretty much an OEM device.

I am really suprised by this, as when I spoke to neutrik about this new connector that was supposed to replace the old powercon and fix all its shortcomings they eluded to the idea the connector would be suitable for portable power distribution whereas the powercon is not (despite what those in the audio industry tell you)

 

[thesigma]

Personally I would just make a little pig tail adapter that goes from Edison their socket then you can remove them and use their socket when you want to maintain the ip65 rating. They have ip65 rated twist locks. For ideas look for marine power connectors.

That Idea was considered initially, and may be the way I go, I'm just not to fond of the original connectors (Sure-Seal) in an application where they will be mated and unmated every time I break them out (once a week at minimum). I fear they will fail, plus they are a pain in the rear to get mated. I Will probably order a pair of the new powercons and see what i tink of them.

to MRB regarding the UL listing: I thought anything you build yourself or modify is automatically not UL listed, regardless of the parts? or am I wrong hear? I seem to recall threads about building your own stage stringers and such........

 

[mrb]

to MRB regarding the UL listing: I thought anything you build yourself or modify is automatically not UL listed, regardless of the parts? or am I wrong hear? I seem to recall threads about building your own stage stringers and such........

certain things assembled from ul LISTED parts is ok. A cable assembly with listed SOOW cord and listed hubbell edison connectors is one example.

UL recognized components differ from listed parts in that they must be used as part of a final listed assembly.